Midgard Dwarves against Elves (and a Dragon!)

 Colin and I dug out some fantasy armies to try out spells and monstrous creatures, namely Colin's Dragon!

Colin set up his elves in a single line, interposing spear and bow units along the line. he put his bolt shooter on one flank and his dragon on the other. I matched his battle line and put my skirmishers facing down the bolt shooter. With a dwarf army I  needed to get into contact as quickly as possible and avoid too many casualties on the way in. There is no point trying to be subtle with dwarves, so a headlong change was my main tactic.

Turn One

Not much happened, the dwarves trudged forward and the elves sat back and lobed a couple of arrows, that did no real damage. The bolt shooter also failed to do any harm, but did succeed in knocking one of my axe units back out of the line. The dwarf wizard had attempted to shield some units using a magical mist, but failed (costing me a reputation point!).

Turn Two

The Dwarves move closer and their wizard conjures up a misty veil to cover the advance of my heavy hitters, the dwarf king and his hearth guard and a unit of ogres.

In the defender's phase, much to my surprise, Colin charged forward with his spearmen and the dragon, while his archers stood and shot. Despite the elves having the advantage of charging, the melees were mostly drawn or won by the dwarves (due to the dwarves' heavier armour), except over on the flank, where the unit fighting against both spears and a dragon were wiped out, along with the champion leading them. Things were looking bad for the dwarves, the elves reputation had been boosted by their heroes leading charges, whereas the dwarf losses had taken by 5 points!

Turn Three

In this turn things moved in favour of the dwarves. In the brutal melee combat along most of the battle line, the dwarves superior armour started to swing the melees in their favour (assisted by Colin's utterly abysmal dice rolling for his dragon).

I moved my skirmishers into close range of the bolt shooter and showered them with arrows, inflicting a kill on the crew. 

Elsewhere the dwarves not yet in combat, charged forward and a brutal melee ranged up and down the line.

On the opposite flank the dragon charged up the hill, accompanied by a beastmaster hero, which i though would be the end of the unit awaiting them. but the dwarves rallied and actually won the melee, pushing the fiery lizard back! Also wounding the elvish hero in the process. On the other end of the hill the dwarves destroy the spear unit in front of them as the second elf units repositions themselves on the dwarven flank.

In the centre the dwarves pushed the opponents back almost universally along the line, except for the ogres who destroyed the spearmen in front of them.

The melees continued in the defender's phase and the poor elves started to melt away.

The artillery's response to the skirmishers was fairly ineffective once again.

This is the centre on the battlefield at the end of turn three, the elvish battle has disappeared, leaving isolated units struggling to hold on.

Turn Four

On the hill the dwarves manage to turn towards the elves before they can be caught in the flank. The dragon and their foes are both in the game, but have effectively fought each other to a bloody standstill. Over in the centre, another elf unit disappeared, along with their hero, as the dwarf juggernaut keeps moving forward.

At the end of turn four the elves are down to minus 3 reputation, whilst the dwarves are still on plus 5. Dwarf victory!

A quick and bloody game. I'd expected the elf archery to be more effective (to be honest, so had Colin😁) and the bolt shooter was a damp squib. It wasn't helped that the bows only got two shots in and the heavy dwarf armour avoided too many casualties in that short time. The dragon was also a disappointment, his fire breath weapon was ineffective and he couldn't manoeuvre any better that the dwarf foot. I suggested Colin lose the breath weapon, it's more effective in melee, so why waste time breathing on the enemy. Use the points to give the dragon the Flying ability, which would have allowed it to sweep around the flanks  and potentially catch a unit in the rear, or else force me to break up my line and pull units back to counter the dragon.